Very much 'Home Thoughts' in miniature, this patchy but
thoroughly listenable self-produced debut introduced the world to CTW's
pet themes of love, religion and the British way of life. Clifford's love
of metaphorical wordplay is very much to the fore - "if you share
my coathanger, I'll be hung on you" / "You knock when you should
come in" etc. - and the perky charm of Circus Girl
and Anticipation is undeniable. Carrie, inspired
by Theodore Dreiser's novel, Sister Carrie, was a strange, highly uncommercial
choice as the first single, even though an alternate take was issued, but
Coathanger was rightly more enthusiastically received as
its follow up. A lot of nice songs but nothing to make the hairs on the
back of your neck stand on end yet. Beware of the CD version - it's beautifully
re-packaged but the vocals are mixed so low that some tracks qualify as
instrumentals!!

Star Rating: * * * (out of 5)

My comments:

Released on the Dandelion label just as Dandelion folded - consequently
received no media coverage and went largely unnoticed. I think Clive (above)
slightly underrates this album. It is a superb collection of songs, though,
admittedly, no match for its sequel - 'Home Thoughts' (what
is?). It certainly deserved to be better known. The songs on this album
always struck me as having a more conventional sound than the distinct
'Clifford T' style that adorns all his later albums, though traces of his
unique style can be detected here and there - appearing to be in the development
stage.

The recent, C.D. version is called 'Singer/Songwriter Plus':
the 'Plus' being reference to the additional track Sidetrack,
which originally formed the 'B' side of his Coathanger single,
and was not present on the vinyl album.